Field Notes: Highlights from Huawei

Editor’s note: Since we closely follow China and the global nature of tech in general, among other topics related to innovation, here are highlights from a two-hour interview that Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of Huawei (the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and second largest manufacturer of smartphones) gave to Chinese media in Shenzhen, China on May 21. In our business (5G), we sit at the forefront, but as far as [China’s] overall technology is concerned, we are far behind the United States

…on the “Spare Tire” Plan

[The Spare Tire Plan is Huawei’s backup plan to ensure a steady supply of microchips in the event of supply disruption.] Keeping spare tires [the Huawei home-made chips] as backup is the logical norm of survival for our company.

Source: a16z.com